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Catastrophe: Europe Goes to War 1914

By: Max Hastings
Narrated by: Max Hastings,Nigel Harrington
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Summary

The Amazon History Book of the Year 2013 is a magisterial chronicle of the calamity that befell Europe in 1914 as the continent shifted from the glamour of the Edwardian era to the tragedy of total war.

Nineteen fourteen was a year of unparalleled change. The year that diplomacy failed, imperial Europe was thrown into its first modernised warfare and white-gloved soldiers rode in their masses across pastoral landscapes into the blaze of machine guns. What followed were the costliest days of the entire war. But how had it happened?

In Catastrophe: Europe Goes to War 1914, Max Hastings, best-selling author of the acclaimed All Hell Let Loose, answers at last how World War I could ever have begun.

Ranging across Europe, from Paris to St. Petersberg, from Kings to corporals, Catastrophe: Europe Goes to War 1914 traces how tensions across the continent kindled into a blaze of battles - not the stalemates of later trench-warfare but battles of movement and dash where Napoleonic tactics met with weapons from a newly industrialised age. A searing analysis of the power brokering, vanity and bluff in the diplomatic maelstrom reveals who was responsible for the birth of this catastrophic world in arms. Mingling the experiences of humbler folk with the statesmen on whom their lives depended, Hastings asks: whose actions were justified? From the outbreak of war through to its terrible making and the bloody gambles in Sarajevo and Mons, Le Cateau, Marne and Tannenberg, this is the international story of World War I in its most severe and influential period.

Published to coincide with its 100th Anniversary, Catastrophe: Europe Goes to War 1914 explains how and why this war, which shattered and changed the Western world for ever, was fought.

©2015 Max Hastings (P)2015 HarperCollins Publishers Limited
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

Critic reviews

"Magnificent...Hastings writes with an enviable grasp of pace and balance, as well as an acute eye for human detail. Even for readers who care nothing for the difference between a battalion and a division, his book is at once moving, provocative and utterly engrossing." ( Sunday Times)
"Masterly...Hastings is a brilliant guide to that strange, febrile twilight before Europe plunged into darkness. Writing in pungent prose suffused with irony and underpinned by a strong sense of moral outrage, Catastrophe is a frontal assault on what Hastings calls the "poets' view"...This is history-writing at its best, scholarly and fluent...for anyone wanting to understand how that ghastly, much-misunderstood conflict came about, there could be no better place to start than this fine book." ( The Times)
"One could scarcely ask for a better guide to these horrors than Max Hastings...he is a superb writer with a rare gift for evoking the rhythm, mood and raw physical terror of battle...If you are looking for a humane and compelling interpretive chronicle of the formative months of this horrific conflict, you will find none better." ( Mail on Sunday)
"Very readable. Character, pace, sense of landscape, battlefield detail - all are superbly done...it's a splendid read." ( Observer) "'No part of the Great War compares in interest with its opening', wrote Churchill, and Hastings does full justice to its appalling drama... Catastrophe is rich in unexplored sources from every side of the conflict and every theatre of the war." (David Crane, Spectator)
"Vigorous and readable, making good use of the worm's eye-view...Engaging, well paced and, despite the grim subject matter, often entertaining." ( New Statesman)
"Vivid and compelling...superbly detailed and nuanced...Hastings is a master of the pen portrait and the quirky fact...yet his greatness as a historian - never shown to better effect than in this excellent book - lies in his willingness to challenge entrenched opinion." (Saul David, Evening Standard)

What listeners say about Catastrophe: Europe Goes to War 1914

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Highly recommended

An excellent history of the outbreak and progress up to the end of 1914 of World War I by the eminent Max Hastings.

Although much of the subject matter is grim, it's a relatively easy listen - a tribute to the craftsmanship of both author and narrator.

Highly recommended.

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9 people found this helpful

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Depressing, harrowing but gripping history

I recently listened to the author’s magisterial history of the Second World War, All Hell Let Loose, and had high hopes that the present book about the First WW would be similarly illuminating. It is, though more concentrated in time covering just the five months of war in 1914. The author gives a detailed account of how so many countries got involved in the war, and their varying reasons, but overall it appears it was without much thought other than the hubris of rulers and/or hopes of grabbing more land, with the assassination of Austrian Archduke merely acting as the trigger.

It’s astonishing how confident both the leaders and general public were that the conflict would be over in weeks or months. The naivety of the early volunteers, over how the war would be waged, is heart-breaking and the horrors they had to endure beyond anything they could have dreamed possible. Many of the armies were ill-prepared for war, which added to the soldiers suffering and the casual way that, often incompetent, generals pushed men to their deaths as literally cannon fodder is appalling. ‘Lions led by Donkeys’ is a phrase used about the leadership of the First WW, but it’s an insult to donkeys!

Though not a happy listen it’s a chastening reminder of how terrible war can be, especially when several parties are involved and how ‘modern’ warfare ravages towns and cities, involves civilians and decimates the large tracks of land.

A moving and gripping story told by excellent narrators.

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8 people found this helpful

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For all History Nerds

An excellent account of the build up to the war and its first 12 months. A good balance between detail and strategic level coverage. A useful addition to the wealth of narration on the subject providing useful perspective. Good narration.

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Detailed analysis of the start of World War One

This book was a fascinating listen. There were a lot of details I had no idea about. I was very ignorant about the start of WWI but I feel like I have a good grasp of it now.
I did not feel Max Hastings was biased towards his British routes. In fact he is not afraid to shine a light on the failures of the British government and it’s army.
The main focus is on Britain, France, Germany and Austria. I would have welcomed more about the eastern front but there is plenty to get stuck into.
Plenty about the home front and the British forays into the North Sea.
The reading of Nigel Harrington is excellent and kept me entertained through the lengthy listen.
I will recommend to anyone interested in the time period.

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A comprehensive review

If you could sum up Catastrophe: Europe Goes to War 1914 in three words, what would they be?

authoritive, comprehensive & readible

Any additional comments?

A really in-depth look at the build up to War and the consequences thereafter. Refreshing to read this even handed review from all perspectives.
The best book I've read on the subject of the break-out of The Great War.

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well read, comprehensive account

well read, comprehensive account, great mix of fact and anecdotes, would recommend, narration really brought the horror into account

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Brilliant!

I’ve read or listened to several of Max Hastings’ books over the last few years and now consider him the “go to” author for enlightenment over the two world wars and their principal actors. I don’t think anybody could accuse Mr Hastings of being a “dangerous leftie”, but he doesn’t stray over to a rightist or revisionist camp either. Instead what you get are “warts and all” portrayals of facts and personalities crafted from meticulous research and analysis. He resists the temptation to lionise characters on whom posterity usually bestows mythical status, while also refusing to pillory completely those characters whom history commonly holds up as bogeymen. There is no nationalism or fawning populism or hero worship in these refreshingly honest books!
Turning to “Catastrophe” specifically, this is the first book I’ve come across on WW1 that has left me with a good grasp of how the pre-war Alliances functioned (or malfunctioned) and whose “fault” the outbreak of a global conflict was. Other books or documentaries on the subject, it seems to me, dole out arguments along the lines of “on the one hand this” but “on the other hand such-and-such”, always sidestepping the issue of actual blame. No Empire is spared Max Hastings’ scorn and criticism, but he does, in the end, point the finger at Germany for taking matters that one irrevocable step further than was needed, turning a frightening possibility into a catastrophic inevitability. But not without, previously, having doled out some very harsh criticism of the Russians and Austro-Hungarians for their hysterics and posturing while lacking the military might and expertise, or logistical back-up, to bring any kind of military conflict to a quick conclusion.
The author is also very adept at showing the internal hierarchies within these vast European “Empires”, where in most cases a rather stupid figurehead propped up by an equally sclerotic and hidebound coterie of aristocrats and generals, would make decisions affecting millions of people in the way small boys would play at soldiers. Mr Hastings’ portraits of these people are done deftly and sparingly, so you don’t get mired in a mud bath of unpronounceable names and titles; rather, a spotlight is shone on the lamentable and ego-stroking decision-making that can happen when there’s no democracy or checks and balances in supposedly modern nations.
The book ends just a few months into WW1 - but far enough along the line to show the obsolescence of 19th century war making and strategising. We finish this book seeing the inevitability of mechanised 20th century warfare and the horrors to come. The new weapons have almost taken on a life of their own and the top brass of all the belligerents are left clueless as to how to catch up, cerebrally or logistically.
This book is highly recommended to anyone who continues to scratch their head over the causes of WW1 (as I had since O Level history some 55 years ago!) for its clarity, succinctness and fairness, all wrapped up in some superbly paced writing. I shall definitely be listening to this one again, probably before the year’s out!

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Excellent comprehensive account

This book provides an excellent account of the prelude to WW1. Through careful research of available records, letters and diaries Max Hastings gives a clear explanation of the dispositions of the belligerents and their conduct prior to August 1914. The long recognised spark that ignited the war, the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, is placed in context of failing dynasties and ambitious politicians. The spark might have been any one of many events but the explosion was the consequence of decades of misrule and incompetence by politicians from all quarters.
Once the war begins the book gives a comprehensive account of the actions taken by each of the nations engaged, actions by generals, politicians, industrialists and the ordinary people. Clear analysis of these actions helps build an account that has made justifiable criticism of key protagonist while also recognising the valiant efforts of some to avert war and of others to minimise the cost in human suffering. Myths are debunked and popular revisionist views corrected but the enormity of the Catastrophe is fully revealed while laying bare the human cause lay in no single event but rather a breakdown in humanities recognition that we need to show greater respect to one another and not underestimate people's determination to defend ideals which the ambitious politician can exploit in pursuance of personal ambition or misguided patriotism.
The conclusions that you may arrive at when you have read the book may differ from mine but it is to the credit of Max Hastings that I doubt any one will be as sure of their opinion as they were before reflecting upon the information so well presented by the author.

WW 1 was a catastrophe and just as the tragedy of the Titanic began in its design and the ambitions of those who built her so in reading this book it is clear to me that WW1 was not something that could be avoided simply by having an extra pair of binoculars in the lookout post.
The generals in 1914, like the officers and crew of the Titanic could not save the ship once the iceberg had been hit but they might have saved more lives if they had taken more care over the evacuation of the ship and even commissioned the many craftsmen and women aboard to use the materials of the ship, such as doors and tables, to make more life rafts..,speculation can offer many possibilities but only with the hindsight provided by many years of reexamination of the evidence. So with the generals in 1914, yes a commander today may have acted differently but this account gives the context of the options available to the generals at the time. Some come out with honour, but there is no glory for any to claim. The behaviour of politicians and their interaction with the generals also reveals where some of the true credit lies for the suffering of the troops in the field.
The question left at the end of this excellent book is the same as the one we had at the beginning...how?
Knowing why is the answer that helps explain the past...How we avoid war... that is the question to which we need an answer.
In this book Max Hastings does not attempt to give an answer.
I conclude that he does give a very clear reminder that war is the result of a cacophony of voices all failing to listen to one another and any solution to the question probably lies in each of us learning to modulate our voice in such a way that we harmonise with those around us... some our tenors, some Soprano and some provide a deep resonating base...if we are to avoid war we need to sing in harmony...it sounds simple but as I listen to the well intentioned efforts of my congregation each Sunday I know it is far from easy.
This book presents a challenge not a solution and for that I am grateful to Max Hastings because I believe books should encourage thought not define answers.

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Brilliant from start to finish

The first year of WW1 was atrocious and totally overlooked by the latter battles of The Somme and Gallipoli etc.
I found this somber and spell binding. I loved the narration - truly first class and found the level of detail to be the Goldilocks approach, not too much and not too little.
Very informative, very sad and all in all worth investing a chunk of your life into.
Only thing I wanted to hear more about was The Christmas Truce.
Well done all involved.

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Too Anglocentric

The tragedy of 1914 was shared by many nations and nationalities but the book is mostly about Anglo history. Not what I was really looking for. The author has done a good job in several books but this one is obviously lacking in research and feels rushed.
If you are looking for a book about 1914 that isn't purely about warfare I suggest looking for other books.

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